Tony Kanal was born on August 27, 1970, in Kingsbury, a suburb of London, England. When he was eleven years old, his family relocated to Orange County region of Southern California. His first musical memories consists of nursery rhymes and the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang soundtrack. At the age of 12 he bought his first record with his own money, it was the "Business As Usual" with Men at Work. His interest of music continues to grew, and like a wide range of musical styles, with everything from Motley Crue to Duran Duran. But it wasn't until 1985 when Tony discovered his biggest influence ever. His very first live experience was seing Prince on his "Purple Rain" tour, an artist that changed his views of music to this very day. But still, he had a very wide taste of music, and when he went to highschool, he discovered Red Hot Chilipeppers. He liked them so much, so he even skipped school one day just to go and see them perform live. It's funny though, as a couple of years further on Flea, a member of Red Hot Chilipeppers actually would produce their very first demo. So, you can say apart from Prince, all kinds of different music styles where mixed into one, a mix that shaped Tony to be the musican he is, and the musician he continues to become.

When you talk about his biggest musical influences, you probably would mention The Specials' bassist Horace Gentleman, and Fishbone bassist Norwood Fisher as his first major influences. During Tony began playing bass in his high school jazz band. He sites his bass teacher Dave Carpenter,. Tony's introduction to, and ultimately inclusion with No Doubt would soon follow his beginnings in the high school jazz band. After having played only one official gig at Fender's Ballroom in Long Beach, No Doubt needed to replace their bass player. Tony, who had been in attendance at the first show, was chosen as the new bassist and joined the band before their second club show. His first introduction in playing bass was in his high school jazz band. His bass teacher was Dave Carpenter, who later on would end up being one of the first members to join No Doubt. When No Doubt held their first offical gig at the Fender's Ballrom in Long Beach, Dave Carpenter was the guy who played bass. This was in the beginning of 1987, and Tony was in the audience, and he had meet the band before at their new year's eve party of 1986.

He liked what he saw, and as No Doubt has decided to change bass player after this show, Tony was the only one they considered, and he has been a member of the band ever since. The same year, he and Gwen started to go out and that was the beginning of a relationship that would last for 7 years, which may can be considered as a pretty long time. He is currently single, and cruises down Sunset Boulevard for chicks, so girls watch out! Apart from the music scene, Tony has always been interested in business, and learned a lot along the way from other business people. An in the beginning, he handled many aspects of No Doubt's business, and worked as their manager. Later on their popularity of No Doubt increased and it was too much to handle. Another manager came in, but it should be said that Tony is still very much involved in No Doubts business and has been devoted to the pre-production and recording of No Doubt's new album. An album that is gonna be released sometime next year. It should also be said that there is a lot of work involved in it, and Tony spends sometimes up to 70 hours a week for that matter. On his spare time he has been renovating his new home in Los Angeles.